Republican North Texas Congressman Brandon Gill supports the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) while Democratic N. Texas Congressman Marc Veasey has questioned the effort. We also look at the new school choice bill introduced in the Texas House and a Texas Senate bill to give teachers a raise. Democrats are also split over Governor Greg Abbott’s request for Congress to reimburse the state for the billions of dollars it spent to prevent illegal immigration. (Original air date: February 23, 2025.)
Mass firings amid DOGE spending cuts
An executive order signed by President Trump Wednesday says, “It is the policy of my Administration to dramatically reduce the size of the Federal Government, while increasing its accountability to the American people.”
A separate executive order February 11 said there are more than 2.4 million people in the federal workforce, excluding postal service employees and active-duty military. In fiscal year 2022, the federal government spent $300 billion on compensation for civilian employees, not including pensions. About 75,000 workers have now accepted a buyout offer to leave the federal government.
The President spoke about it last week. “It’ll mean much lower inflation, lower interest rates, lower payments on mortgages, credit cards, car loans, and much higher stock markets. I think the stock market’s going to be great. In other words, we will rapidly grow our economy by dramatically shrinking the federal government that we have to do it.”
We spoke with two federal employees in North Texas who were among those fired. Kara Bond has been battling breast cancer for three months and temporarily moved to North Texas for treatment and to be closer to family. Then on Valentine’s Day, she said she got an email that changed her life again.
The email was from the U.S. Forest Service and said she was fired. “It was my dream job,” she said. Bond was a probationary employee, an archeologist and supervisor in Montana – a job she described as her calling. “Just being able to protect the land and work with the tribes, work with all the different artifacts and different states and the land they manage. It was a special job.”
While she had worked there for nearly two years, she went full-time last year and was about to become a permanent employee. “I had three weeks left until I was done with that probationary period.,” said Bond. “This was a firing for political reasons and to copy and paste this termination letter and email it out to thousands of employees, there’s a code of federal regulations against that.”
She is not alone. Haley Densler, an employee at the EPA in Dallas, told CBS News Texas that she was fired on Valentine’s Day as well. “My immediate reaction was just kind of a state of shock. I immediately called my supervisor, and she expressed that she had no clue why it was happening. She did not agree with it.”
Densler though believes it was all a mistake, “Ironically, my probationary period had concluded five days prior on February 9th. Officially, I had received an updated HR file as well stating that I was eligible for continued employment.” She’s hoping to be reinstated.
For now, Kara Bond is considering her legal options and what to do about her health insurance. “I’ll lose my healthcare in 31 days within my date of hire. So that’s an additional stressor I could have not used right now,” sais Bond.
Both Bond and Densler showed CBS News Texas paperwork that showed they received good performance reviews. Unions representing federal employees have filed various lawsuits against the government.
The Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, said on its website that it has saved $55 billion dollars in waste, fraud, and abuse. U.S. Representative Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, criticized DOGE.
“No one knows if DOGE is telling the truth,” said Veasey. “DOGE will put out a statement saying look at all of this fraud that we’ve found but no one has had a chance to analyze that. No one should take Elon Musk at his word.”
U.S. Representative Brandon Gill, R-Flower Mound told CBS News Texas, “We are running $2 trillion deficit every single year. Our country is flat out broke. We do not have the money to be wasting on either left wing pet projects, or on duplicative services, or on waste, fraud or abuse. And that’s what we are going after. We are getting our country back to fiscal sanity, getting our country back on a track that is economically sustainable. So, we are going to be seeing a lot of rationalization across the federal government. But this is what the people want.”
Watch Jack’s full interview with Republican Congressman Brandon Gill:
School choice battle
The Texas House has now filed multiple education bills that will inject more than $9 billion dollars of new money into public schools and another $1 billion in tax dollars for a school choice bill to send students to private school. It comes after the Texas Senate already passed its $1 billion dollar bill for school choice. The House version of the bill is universal and open to everyone but gives priority to low-income students and students with disabilities. It provides about $10,000 per student at an accredited private school and allows families to rollover unused funds from one year to the next. The House bill comes after a year of intense pressure from Governor Greg Abbott who campaigned against Republicans in the House who voted against similar legislation two years ago. He often won.
The pressure hasn’t let up. The fight over school choice in Texas has attracted nationwide attention. President Trump posted on his Truth Social account recently, “The Texas House must now pass School Choice…”
Texas Speaker Dustin Burrows responded, “We will.”
Elon Musk posted a response to the President on X: “I hope Dustin Burrows passes school choice in Texas to give kids a chance.”
Speaker Burrows responded, “Happy Valentine’s Day @Elon Musk.”
A war of words erupted over school choice between two old political foes: Governor Greg Abbott and his former Democratic challenger, Beto O’Rourke.
The former Congressman posted on X, “Even Abbott admits it. Texas public schools will LOSE money thanks to this ridiculous voucher scheme.”
The Governor responded, “Robert Francis O’Rourke doesn’t want low-income kids to have the same opportunities HE had at private school.”
O’Rourke fired back: “Alright, you want to talk about “low income kids? You want to defund the public schools that these kids depend on and raise everyone’s property taxes.”
Abbott shot back, “All right, you want to talk about what Texans want? Definitely not you. You are a repeat loser in Texas.”
O’Rourke closed out by saying, “I may have lost the election but you have failed the children of Texas. Happy Valentine’s Day.”
Watch Jack’s story on the social media campaign to pass school choice:
Senator Ted Cruz is also urging the Texas House to pass school choice. He recently sent this letter to Speaker Burrows saying, “Do not be swayed by attempts to compromise or weaken this critical, life-altering legislation.”
For the first time last week, Speaker Burrows spoke publicly about the House passing school choice. He did so first at an event in San Antonio with Governor Greg Abbott and the Chairman of the House Public Education Committee, Representative Brad Buckley, R-Salado. Burrows said, “I’m proud to say the votes are there to this in the Texas House”
Then Burrows addressed the conservative think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation in Austin Thursday. “It will be the defining issue this session. House Bill 3 is historic, and it provides for what people have been asking for: Real meaningful opportunities.”
The Texas House Democratic Caucus is fighting against school choice. To help sway public opinion, it has set up an interactive website, Don’tDefundMySchool.com. The site estimates how much money school districts will lose if school choice passed, and students leave for private schools. But the website does not disclose how it came to these estimates.
Jack spoke with the Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, State Representative Mihaela Plesa. “I think this is a tool for their constituents to use and then contact their lawmakers and say, we are a strong no on SB 2 or any voucher scam that’s coming out of the Texas legislature,” said Plesa.
Watch Jack’s full interview with Democratic State Representative Mihaela Plesa:
The Texas House is also proposing increasing the amount of funding school districts receive, and 40 percent of that increase will go toward teacher pay raises. The Texas Senate has proposed bumping teacher salaries too. The amount will depend on the number of students in a district. Teachers in a district with more than 5,000 students will receive an extra $2,500 if they have three and four years of experience.
If they have five years’ experience, they will receive an extra $5,500. If the teachers are in a school district with 5,000 or fewer students, they’ll receive a $5,000 raise if they have three and four years of experience. If the teachers have five or more years of experience, they will get an extra $10,000.
This is in addition to any pay increases teachers may receive from their own school districts. The Senate Education Committee approved the bill unanimously on Thursday and sent it to the full Senate where it’s expected to pass. Governor Abbott considers this an emergency item, which means lawmakers can pass it right away.
Democrats split over Governor’s request for Congress to reimburse Texas for money spent to secure the border
Texas Democrats are split and not on the same page regarding Governor Abbott’s request that Congress reimburse the state $11.1 billion that it spent to prevent illegal immigration. Democrats serving in the Congress strongly oppose it, while Democrats in the Texas House we spoke with support the state’s request.
U.S. Representative Marc Veasey said, “It’s ridiculous with Elon Musk and Trump and DOGE. Why in the world would they want to reimburse anyone that’s spent all of this money that’s virtually been ineffective at doing anything to stop the flow of immigration from coming across the border? Isn’t DOGE about preventing waste and fraud? Why would you give back $11 billion to the guy who’s been wasting money?”
State Representative Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas said, “I once again am 100% supporting Governor Abbott and his effort to make sure that Texas gets compensated for the $11 billion dollars that we spent on border security, and I know that there are other House Democrats that feel the same way. I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with our Congressional members yet about this issue. But I deal with my state budget. I deal with making sure that my state is getting paid.”
Plesa and Representative Eddie Morales, D-Eagle Pass issued a joint statement saying they insist that any money the state gets back from Congress should go to the state’s border communities for public improvement projects, public schools, health care access, and more.
CBS News Texas reached out to the congressional offices of Veasey, Representative Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, and Representative Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, for comment about the differences of opinion with State Representatives, but have not yet received a response.
State Representative Rafael Anchia, D-Dallas, previously told CBS News Texas that he supports the idea of Congress reimbursing the state. But he said the Governor should have requested $20 billion to include what the legislature may spend during the next two years and during the first Trump administration. Republican lawmakers in both Austin and in Washington, D-C strongly back the Governor’s request.
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